Travis Neal leans over the dragon’s head at the bow of the boat to grab the flag for his crew at the end of a race Saturday. The annual Dragon Boat Festival celebrated its 13th year at Sloan’s Lake with the first day of racing Saturday, July 27, 2013. There is more competition Sunday.

The annual Colorado Dragon Boat Festival is so important to MiMi Loung and her family business, she and her husband planned the birth of their first child around it.

“It was like a miracle baby. We’ve been married four years and, finally,” Loung said as she checked out a line of customers at her tent Saturday. “We couldn’t have a baby any other time because it’s so busy.”

More than 100,000 people are expected to visit the 13th annual Colorado Dragon Boat Festival at Sloan’s Lake this weekend, executive director Erin Yoshimura said.

Loung and her husband, Michael Ye, own Troung An Inc., a business that she said has been in the family for 33 years. The Asian gift store is located on South Federal Boulevard, and their tent is the largest of more than 40 merchandise stands at the festival.

Loung said her son Landon was born May 25, between Chinese New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival — the store’s only downtime.

“It’s just our culture to show all our Asian stuff,” Loung said. “We’ve expanded, everyone knows us, and we get new customers from the festival.”

The opening ceremonies kicked off at 10 a.m. Saturday, as a brilliant 80-foot dragon made its way through the crowd. It grew from 75 feet last year.

“They actually custom-made this dragon so they could add on to it,” Yoshimura said.

Eleven-year-old Nathaniel Sabol and his 8-year-old sister, Gwen, were captivated by the dragon, but they were more excited about improving their origami skills.

“I can fold cranes, a frog, bird and wild duck,” Nathaniel said.

“I can just fold a frog,” Gwen said. “And I can fold Yoda.”

In Dragonland, kids can also chalk sidewalks and do other Asian art projects.

Throughout the festival, costumed performers danced and the audience could learn the moves. More than 20 food vendors offered samples, and people could help add graffiti to cellophane stretched between two trees.

“We want people to come and not just observe the culture — we want them to engage with the culture,” Yoshimura said.

Monks from the Denver Buddhist Culture Society chanted and burned incense over the festival Saturday morning to cleanse and bless the area. They dotted the eyes of the dragon boats used in the races to awaken their senses and give the racers the strength of the dragon.

But preliminary races began before the dragons’ senses awakened, and karma pitted brewery against brewery.

MillerCoors has been a sponsor of the festival since its inception, said Melissa Kuhn, MillerCoors communications specialist and captain of the dragon boat team.

“We have some experienced paddlers in the front leading the team and we have some strong engine guys in the middle,” she said as her team strapped on their hats made of Coors and Miller cartons and prepared to paddle. “May the battle of the beers begin.”

Justin Clark, team captain for the Dreadnoughts, said his team had capsized their boat during practice.

“We had what I like to term a team-building experience,” Clark said before the race.

The results of the race were disputed. The Dreadnoughts reached the finish line first, but they didn’t grab their flag, a main objective of the race.

Ann Hemminger, a MillerCoors team member, said both teams would advance to future rounds, and she was confident that with the power of the dragon behind them, her team would improve.

“After the race, our boats collided,” she said, smiling. “I can’t believe they had us do the qualifying round before the blessing.”

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